"Donnie Darko" may be the Everest of adolescent angst movies. A smart, emotionally troubled suburban teen wrestles with the usual stuff -- identity issues, bullies, well-meaning but clueless parents and various school absurdities -- and a few things considerably stranger. Early in the film he may enter a parallel universe involving events and images loaded with metaphysical and religious overtones, and he may get a chance to save the world.

This movie is loaded with "maybes," deliberate ambiguities and fodder for argument. For starters, there's a 6-foot-tall rabbit who makes sinister suggestions to Donnie. Throughout are hints of David Lynch's films and Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining," as well as John Hughes movies and teen horror flicks. Several reviewers have mentioned "The Catcher in the Rye." The Internet Movie Database calls it a "fantasy/drama/sci-fi/mystery." What sort of beast is this?

At first, not many viewers seemed to care. The picture pulled in a little more than $500,000 when it played theatrically in 2001, but the DVD release last year gave it a genuine second life. Word spread on the Internet. Now a "director's cut" is back in theaters, with 20 minutes of additional footage that clarifies a few matters.

To members of the Darko cult, this may not be an improvement, but it could help this compelling and extremely moving film find the audience it deserves -- as could the increasingly high profile of Jake Gyllenhaal, who plays Donnie. Like "Memento" and "Mulholland Dr.," "Donnie Darko" is a riddle that obsesses some viewers and reduces others to sputtering rage. Fans have pored over the director's commentary on the original DVD and scrutinized hints on the film's elaborate "official" Web site to concoct solutions that couldn't possibly be deduced from the movie alone. That's dedication.

The story's setting is 1988 -- there are several references to the Dukakis presidential campaign -- and Donnie, we quickly learn, is one distressed high-schooler: He sleepwalks and sees a shrink (Katharine Ross) who has him on medication (and he looks like it, half the time). His family (Mary McDonnell and Holmes Osborne as mom and dad, and Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jake's sibling, as his older sister) seems harmless enough, too genial to be blamed for the sizable chip on Donnie's shoulder.

The psychiatrist isn't all Donnie's seeing -- he's visited by a man- sized rabbit far more sinister than Elwood P. Dowd's pal in "Harvey." The creature, named Frank, wears a fright mask and tells Donnie that the world will end in 28 days. This news is allied somehow to a mysterious accident: a jet engine crashes into Donnie's house, and the authorities can't find any trace of the plane it came from.

Meanwhile, things have gone awry at Donnie's school, where the counseling department has fallen under the sway of a creepy motivational speaker (Patrick Swayze), and his English teacher (Drew Barrymore, who also produced the film) is in the doghouse for having her students read Graham Greene's "The Destructors." There's a spooky old neighbor nicknamed Grandma Death, a mysterious book called "The Philosophy of Time Travel" and a new girl in town (Jena Malone)who's attracted to Donnie.

Director-writer Richard Kelly, making his debut here, pokes fun at life in the suburbs by showing us a family pizza dinner, a pre-adolescent dance team called Sparkle Motion, and a double bill at the local movie house of "Evil Dead" and "The Last Temptation of Christ." And the Swayze character's smarmy mantra about "controlling fear" is pitch-perfect for the times. Not exactly subtle, but Kelly handles most of it with a light touch, which fails him only in depicting the uptight gym teacher (Beth Grant).

Kelly is also good with the actors, especially Jake Gyllenhaal, whose Donnie is tremendously appealing -- he's intelligent, funny and resolute, even as his emotional state deteriorates. He plays it as some sort of grand if scary adventure.

How different are the two versions of "Donnie Darko"? The most obvious addition is the display of pages from the "Time Travel" book, which nudges the story in the sci-fi direction. The psychological drama seems more compelling, and a much more interesting added scene is a discussion between Donnie and his dad that sheds light on the boy's emotional state. Some "Donnie" partisans are also upset by alterations to the '80s-era soundtrack (essential, they say, to interpreting the movie) -- an INXS song, for instance, has replaced Echo & the Bunnymen's "The Killing Moon." In the end, the differences don't matter that much; they're less important than some cultists contend, and this film deserves to be seen anyway.

"Donnie Darko" isn't flawless, but it's tough to shake. It's difficult not to make this film sound like unbearable obfuscation, but Donnie's struggles pack a serious emotional charge. He's understandably rattled when he realizes he's been given a superhero's task, but show me a teen who isn't convinced he's carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. If you haven't forgotten what that feels like, you should be able to connect strongly with "Donnie Darko."

-- Advisory: This film contains harsh language, depictions of drug use and violence.

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